As a result of ongoing inflow of water over an extended period of time into a water heater, sediment tends to gather and build up in the bottom of the water heater. This sediment adversely affects performance particularly with respect to heating of the water in the water heater.
Until recently, only limited water heater developments have been made in an attempt to reduce the sediment build up problem. The developments that have been made, are in the form of turbulating devices, e.g. devices designed to cause a turbulation or swirling of the sedimet at the bottom of the tank so that it can then be drained from the tank.
There are primarily two different types of water feeds to a conventional water heater. One of these water feeds is provided through a radial inlet near the base of the water heater. A specific type of turbulator has been designed for the base inlet water heater and this turbulator is in the form of a large ring having a series of venturi like openings around the ring.
The other type of water heater feed is through a dip tube which is a plastic pipe extending axially from the top down into the water heater. A specific turbulator attachment as shown in Canadian Pat. No. 922,597 to Taylor issued Mar. 13, 1973 has been previously designed for the dip tube water feed.
In principle, the Taylor design, is effective for turbulating the sediment at the bottom of the water heater. However, from a practical standpoint, the turbulator device of Canadian Pat. No. 922,597 places a torque factor on the dip tube which because of both its plastic construction and its extended length is not particularly suited to stand up to any type of a bending force. Added to this is the fact that the Taylor turbultor is specifically designed to provide a venturi unidirectional high speed water flow at right angles to the axis of the dip tube making it very susceptible to breaking.